Apologies in advance to anyone who doesn't care for my artwork. Please ignore this blog post if it doesn't interest you.New Story Idea · 5:13pm Apr 6th, 2019
I just watched the season 9 premiere and I want to get this idea into text while it's fresh.
So it seems like the final season's arc is going to revolve around this "league of villains" orchestrated by the newly-introduced villain, Grogar. In it is Cozy Glow, Chrysalis, Tirek, and at least originally, Sombra. The bit that I found interesting though, surprisingly, is Cozy Glow's role. She brings something new to villainy, which is an actual aptitude for friendship, even if for the wrong motives. This is especially interesting to me because of the idea that despite being bad, they can still be friends and in a sense, gain the magic that embodies it (that's what the show is all about, right?)
So with that, my idea for a story revolves around showing how these villains could actually, genuinely, become friends. I'd probably bring back Sombra or pretend he was never banished again like he was in the premiere though. The Mane 7 would be more like side characters that act as the source of conflict as their fiendship grows (pun intended) and they plot a way to take over Equestria, together.
The real kicker though, and this would be the big reveal should I ever write this story, would be that their learning and acceptance of friendship would continue to grow beyond their group. Perhaps one of them would recruit a "lesser" villain of sorts, acting as a bridge between themselves and less...evil...characters. In essence, friendship would be a virus that infects them, whose seed was planted by Cozy Glow. The forces of good (Twilight + everyone else) wouldn't even need to save the day. Friendship itself would do that on it's own.
I'd love to see this idea as a full story. I can already visualize it: Twilight and her friends discover their secret hideout and burst in, ready to kick ass and take names... only to discover their enemies are just casually chatting over some brunch.
5039405
Haha, maybe if I went the comedy route. Right now the idea is a bit more serious in my mind, but it's just an idea at the moment. It'd be a tough "sell" to write a story wherein the villains reform themselves.
I kind of prefer some of the villains being left un-reformed, at least entirely reformed, if every baddie gets "cured" that takes a huge chunk of the enjoyability out of the show and makes it closer to its roots than I care for. Not saying that there weren't certain things that g1 did right (or would that be didn't?), but from my very small experience, everything was, for the most part, all sunshine and smiles 24/7 365. In short, I think that you might be on to something, but I would prefer that even if they do become friends of sorts, that doesn't mean they will suddenly be friends with everyone.
5039481
For sure. There'd have to be some semblance of villainy that was too self-centered or unable to accept change for it to feel "real", in a sense. Of all of them, though, I wonder who would be the best to represent that. There'd be an interesting case to make for it being Cozy Glow who couldn't accept it, despite that being her only strongsuit, but it'd be tough to make that case.
In another vein, though, the "league of villains" could embody their own (twisted versions) of the elements. Chrysalis would be the element of love, since that's what changelings thrive on. Cozy Glow would be friendship, obviously. Tirek and Sombra would need some more characterization for anything to be believable though.
I think the ultimate ending of friendship prevailing would be more like...they just stop seeing a reason to amass more power. With a tight group of friends, they wouldn't have the desire to keep trying to take over and construct a sense of meaning for themselves. I think there's a lot of symbolism in that kind of a story that could be fun to weave into the narrative.
Thanks for your input
Your idea sounds awesome, and reminds me quite a lot of this story:
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/309747/bad-dude-and-the-coalition-of-united-terrible-evils
5039501
Let's see for anti-elements you could have:
Chrysalis- Lies (anti-honesty) (or if you are going for the love angle perhaps something like lust or possessiveness)
Tirek- Greed (anti-generosity)
Cozy Glow- Selfishness (anti-loyalty)
Sombra- Cruelty (anti-kindness)
Grogar- Power (anti-magic)
and if we are trying to balance things perfectly we will want another big villain for anti-laughter (perhaps that evil girlfriend of discords from the comics, I would say Discord, but unless he is somehow brainwashed into going back to his old ways I can't see him risking Fluttershy's friendship like this). As to the stopping with amassing power, I don't know if I buy them just coming to terms with it, perhaps it could be a temporary thing like they are all "we rule Equestria!" for a while but then they start getting greedy again and try to take on other worlds or they start fighting amongst themselves. Or for another path, it could be after much trial and error, they come to an uneasy stalemate of the cold war variety.
5039588
Interesting.
Something tells me their 120k+ word count is more than I could ever hope to accomplish haha. There's a reason most of my ideas remain ideas and I stick to things more easily contained in several thousand words.
5039623
Thanks for your added brainstorming! Anybody is free to take this and run with it by the way. I just thought it was an interesting idea.
5039648
you are quite welcome, I have a hard time writing, mostly because I get ideas, but following through after the initial muse-induced rush is very difficult for me.
I was thinking an Equestrian Suicide Squad, honestly.
But this could be interesting. Although, I'd actually like them to become sort of like Thanos and The Black Order from Infinity War. Have Grogar be the main character, he bonds with everyone else, and then Chrydlalis, Sombra,Tirek, and Cozy sacrifice themselves so Grogar can win and rule Equestria.
It's like Friendship but from a completely different perspective.
Yeah, I'm down for something like that.